Picture Taken by Tweeter @Nonprofitpostal
Yesterday at MTAC, The Postal Service announced that it will begin beta-testing parcel lockers with a brandname gopost in Northern Virginia on December 6. The beta test will include 25 sites when it goes live.
When the test begins, the Postal Service joins Amazon in testing parcel lockers for delivering parcels to individual consumers.
The Postal Service’s gopost lockers differ from Amazon’s in two ways . First, they are designed to accept parcels as well as deliver them. It is unclear from the picture if gopost will allow customers to pay for a parcel and print a shipping label like PackStations do forDeutsche Post’s (DHL’s) customers. Second, gopost should offer an open locker solution for any e-tailer trying to send parcels to customers. Amazon’s lockers are proprietary and only Amazon and Amazon fulfilment shippers can use them.
Gopost lockers give the Postal Service an opportunitiy to expand its parcel delivery business with customers that now use FedEx or United Parcel Service for higher-value small parcels like cell phones, tablets and laptops. The lockers offer the security at least as good as the receipt signature that shippers of higher-value small parcels demand.
As the picture shows, the lockers will use red and blue colors associated with U.S. flag, although it would appear that they are not the colors of the flag. It is unclear if the locker doors use the blue that is currently in the Postal Service’s logo on not.
The lockers have been an informal name and logo using an all lower-case design to provide it with a hipper image. The logo reflects the Postal Service’s understanding that the target market for early adopters includes Internet shoppers who are likely to find that both accepting parcels at home or at a workplace and picking up a parcel at a Post Office inconvenient. The Northern Virginia market is a promising test market for this concept as many households in this market would find staying home to accept a parcel is inconvenient and long commutes make getting to the local Post Office during opening hours difficult.
Abetter illustration can be seen in this post:
Clear Picture of gopost Illustration
This commercial for DHL illustrates how the Postal Service is likely to market goPost. It is good for a chuckle.
Given that the beta-test goes live in less than a week all of the 25 GoPost lockers, I urge readers that live in Northern Virginia to search out these lockers, snap a picture or two and send them to me so that they can be posted for others to view.
For More information on What Amazon is doing see:
Amazon’s Threat To Parcel Select Goes Live
For More information about the Packstation see:
Self Service Retail Popular in Germany
